Learn how to pronounce the words lesion, legion, region, vision with this American English Pronunciation Lesson.
Definitions:
LESION is a wound from an injury.
LEGION is a vast multitude of people or things.
REGION is an area of a country or world.
VISION is a state of being able to see.
Pronunciation:
LESION – LEE-ZHUN or /liʒən/
LEGION – LEE-JUN or /liʤən/
REGION – REE-JUN or /riʤən/
VISION – VIH-ZHUN or /liʒən/
Sentences:
The president had a vision for how to improve the region.
A legion of ants invaded the lesion on the animal carcass.
Transcript:
Hi everyone it’s Jennifer from Tarle speech with your question of the week. Today is a little more of an advanced lesson but I know you can all do it – so hang in there and I will go slowly.
We have four words and I do want you to know this is particularly difficult for my students from Asia from many different language backgrounds there. And we have four words:
lesion a wound from an injury or disease
legion a vast multitude of people or things
region an area of a country or the world
and vision a state of being able to see
Here are the words let’s take a look we have lesion region region and vision.
So again lesion legion region and vision.
The confusing part I think for a lot of people is this zh sound versus the j sound so let’s start right there. For this ZH sound your lips are going to be rounded the tip of your tongue is behind your top front teeth it is not touching your teeth and that air is going to keep moving out of the mouth your voice box is on.
For the j sound these sounds look very similar with what the lips do your lips will be rounded but for this sound what’s going to happen is you’re going to touch the teeth with the tip of your tongue and then pull it back J J J
So again we have ZH J J J ZH J J J
So that’s the difference there. The vowel is going to be that short uh sound some of my students hear a short i an ih sound or an eh sound that’s all fine just make sure that sound is nice and short and relaxed. And then you’re going to end with the n n touch the tip of the tongue to the back of the top front teeth and air moves out of your nose.
So let’s try these endings.
zhun zhun zhun
jun jun jun
So again teeth um tongue does not touch the teeth ZHUN start by touching the teeth jun.
All right now let’s go to the beginning of the words this causes trouble too. All right for most of these words we’re going to use the long e sound you smile your tongue is nice and high and flat in your mouth e for the short eye open your mouth a tiny bit more e ih e ih
You can see i’m opening my mouth by relaxing my cheeks and my lips e ih e ih
Pretending that my hand is my tongue so you can see my tongue will be high and flat for the e e ih e ih
My tongue is just going to pop down slightly it’s going to be behind my top front teeth but kind of at the bottom of the top teeth here. All right for the l you are going to start that by touching the tip of your tongue to the back of your top front teeth and you’re going to keep it there.
l lee lee lee
So that’s for both of those now for the re. You can do one of two things your tongue can either be pointing down with the back pulled up or it could be flipped back it’s whatever works best for you so we have re re-re.
And then down here for the v the v sound what you’re going to do is your mouth is going to be open do not close your lips if you close your lips it’s going to sound like a b. So your lips are slightly open I say you’re going to be biting the inside or the outside of your bottom lip. It’s just like you’re touching it okay vvv air is going to keep moving out voice box is on. vvvvvv vi vi vi
Let’s put these all together…you can do this!
lesion legion region vision
Let’s try them again
lesion legion region vision
I’m going to go a little faster
lesion lesion lesion
legion legion legion
region region region
and vision vision vision
one more time all the way through
lesion legion region vision
And now for some sentences
The president had a vision for how to improve the region.
and sentence number two
A legion of ants invaded the lesion on the animal carcass.
So give it a try I know you can do it! This is a tough one! Let me know how you did in the comments below if you enjoyed this please share this with a friend and if you need help check out our products and our classes at Tarle speech.
Thanks so much everyone have an amazing weekend!